Bulletin Board System/Usenet...

I was seriously contemplating whether or not to post this.  I didn't want everyone to know that I was actually older than I behaved.  But then I remembered that I was only 10 years old when I wrote this.  Yes, a 10 year old with access to a think tank University research department that helped develop the WWW to what it is today. Riiiight.  [it WAS an after school job, by the way!!!]

 

I admit it...every so often, I get curious to see where I exist on the interweb so I google myself. Imagine my surprise when I saw THIS post from nearly 19 years ago. NINETEEN YEARS AGO. Do you realize that the WWW didn't even exist then? Everyone at our company used to refer to this the "bulletin board" [or the "newsgroups" since that's the feature most of us played on during work hours]. People would post their questions, comments, recipes, travel suggestions, and scientific research [i tend to forget that information exchange was the original purpose of Usenet/BBS], etc on a variety of different subjects.

  

After having found my post, these are the conclusions that I came up with:

1. I still write exactly the same as I did when I was 11...I mean 10, as I do now.
2. What you write now will be on the internet for at LEAST the next 20 years, if not longer.  The moral of this story, boys and girls, is that you need to beware of what you write because it can haunt you the rest of your life.
3. My big contribution, my participation in the building of the world wide web as we know it today was a call for "authentic" tamales recipe.  As opposed to faker, poser tamales.*
4. If I had actually understood what was going there, I could've registered domain names through the place where I worked.  Thus leading to my instant millionaire lifestyle.  But let's face it, I was dumb.  I had no clue.  Not much has changed since those days.  

Incidentally, in case you were wondering - I got the "authentic" recipe, made it one time before I realized it was a huge pain in my butt to make and never attempted it ever again.

 

Here's hoping that no one ever finds my post requesting travel suggestions to Mexico.  Extremely irresponsible for a 10 year old to travel to Mexico with a group of friends her same age on their own without any adult supervision, don't you think?

 

* to be fair, the groups weren't nearly as developed as they are today.  Most of the tamale recipes out there were for tamale pie. Funny how i remember that from 19 years ago and can't remember what I had for breakfast today.

Tacos, Tacos, Tacos

One of the major perks of my job is the travel.  I get to travel to some pretty great destinations - Bahamas, Grand Caymans, Hawaii, Cabo, and Cancun to name a few.  Over the years, one of the most important aspects of travel for me has become the food.  When I first started, the one thing my President said was, "you need to taste the food.  it has to be good."  That was one sacrifice I was willing to make.

I love restaurants that serve the rare, exotic, unusual fares that I can't get at just any restaurant.  I also love the dirty-hole-in-the-wall-I-may-get-food-poisoning-here types of places too.  On my last trip to Cancun, I asked my handlers [my destination management company] to take me to a taqueria.  I said, "don't waste my time on nice, fancy places where you take the gringos...take me to the authentic place that you like to eat at."  He warned, "ok, but cash only...and don't be afraid...have a beer and be prepared."

With that, he took me to a local taqueria.  I loved it.  No air conditioning...flies flying all over me...and this guy at the counter chopping up more onions than I'd ever seen before in my life. 

ok, i'm not crazy - there's a huge bucket of onions outside this photo.  i swear.

We ordered our tacos [sans beer...i was working, after all] - he ordered 2...so I felt like I had to order 2 [that's snack for me].  After my first bite, my head snapped up, i looked across the room to the taco man seen above and held 2 fingers up and said, "dos mas, por favor!"  It was juicy, flavorful, and the tortillas had just the right consistency - not too grainy, not too dry...just perfect.  I was one happy chica.  Needless to say, my handlers were quite shocked that a gentle lady, such as myself, could down so many tacos in one sitting.  I decided not to scare them with another 2...besides, i was still supposed to have dinner in a couple of hours at a few restaurants.  Need to save my appetite!

Taqueria: Billy the Kid
Calle 4 and 15th Ave
Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Japanese Pasta

When I was a kid growing up, my favorite thing to eat [besides Top Ramen and Kraft Mac & Cheese] was a raw egg and shoyu over rice. I loved how the gooey, slimey raw egg just coated the rice making everything slide down the back of my throat so easily. After salmonella became a concern, I decided to give up my favorite meal.

My fear of killing myself with salmonella poisoning didn't take my craving for raw eggs away. It wasn't until my mom grated a Yamaimo [pictured above] and put it over rice with shoyu that I found a decent replacement. It had that same consistency that I loved so much. Thus began my love affair with Yamaimo. Ok, so it wasn't exactly like that - there may have been a few "just trust me, just try it," from my mom but it turns out she was right.

Since one can not live on Rice and Yamaimo alone I started my experiments:

Me: "Mom. is it weird to have Tororo [grated Yamaimo] over SOBA??"

Mom: "No, we do that all the time."

Me: "Mom. is it weird to put ahi poke over the tororo over the soba??"

Mom: "No, you had it before in Japan but it was with negi toro over rice instead."

Me: "oh. so i'm not really all that creative then, huh??"

darn. i really believed that I was onto something...

My poor budget doesn't allow me to spend the equivalent of $80 per pound of Otoro tuna so I settled for some really beautiful Blue Fin tuna at $40 per pound [i bought a tenth of a pound].

The Ahi Poke...I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Wong at an event a couple of years ago and had his Ahi Poke. I decided that evening that I loved Alan Wong. I camped out in front of his table, refusing to get out of the way. He tried to tell me how to make it [trow a liddle of dis and a liddle of dat] but the deer caught in headlights look kinda gave away the fact that i didn't know what a "little" really meant. He ended up asking the Banquet Captain for a to go box, boxed up the rest of the poke and gifted it to me. Let me tell you...there were a LOT of people who were really, really pissed off at me. Here's what i remembered from the "liddle of dis and dat" conversation which wasn't much since I already had a couple of drinks by that time. The rest I just had to make up.

Ahi Poke:
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 ½ Tsp Green onion
1 tsp Tobiko [flying fish roe]
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp Mayo [optional, sometimes I just like it spicy tuna style]
½ Tsp Brown Rice Sugar [or honey]
Pinch Sea Salt
Dash of Chili Oil or Sriracha [or to spiciness preference]
Purple Basil or micro Shiso
¼ lb Tuna [sashimi quality]

3 Tbsp Yamaimo [nagaimo], grated

1 to 2 round inches Soba

Instructions:
Cook: Soba in rolling boiling water for just a few minutes until firm but tender

Prepare: Combine all of poke ingredients and marinate the Tuna overnight, if possible.

Grate: Grate the yamaimo and set aside

Plate: Swirl the soba in a circle/mound. Spoon the yamaimo over the soba. Sprinkle some Tobiko over the yamaimo. Spoon some of the poke over the yamaimo. I drizzled some soy sauce over the completed dish to give the yamaimo some additional flavor.

Gyoza Wrappers

I'm still hi-jacking this travel site and in the full spirit of the hi-jacking, I've decided to post up my gyoza adventure.

La Fuji Mama has the most wonderful post on how to make gyoza wrappers from scratch. I looked at it, marvelled at how beautifully perfect her wrappers had turned out, and dismissed it as too much trouble. Then I mosied over to Rasa Malaysia and saw her post on Shrimp & Chive dumplings. Hmmm...i'm craving dumplings. It's been over a month since I last went to dim sum and I've got me a hankering for it.

Of course this revelation came to me while I was not at home and quite unable to do anything about it. So I started formulating my plan...I've got flour, salt & water at home...I can MAKE my wonton wrappers. Heck, I've even got shrimp at home...hmmmm...

Quite frankly, the gyozas took a wee bit longer than i expected it to...like 2 hours for me to mix, rest, knead, and roll out (mostly because I'm lame). But look how beautifully "rustic" [another term for "it looks like a 3rd grader made it"...learned THAT one from Clemence, as well] my gyozas came out. Some of them actually did look round since I figured out how to roll it out so that it maintained its thickness in the middle, thinner around the edges, and all together ROUND.

I swear...these bloggers must all think I'm a total stalker (ok, so I am). I ask question after question and they so kindly and generously answer all of them!! Up until now, I didn't even realize that I enjoyed cooking. I was far too busy trying to kill off my friends and co-workers with "blackened" chicken to realize that, once I got some basic concepts down, it was actually a lot of fun.

Uhhhh. Ooops. Sorry guys...I had the finished results but they came out kind blurry...I started in on the wine a little early tonight.

oh hi...i forgot to mention...you can make DESSERTS with these wrappers. I used some leftover goat cheese mousse (with meyer lemon) and chocolate ganache and filled the wrappers, deep frying them. Hellllooooo, gorgeous!

Tarts

Key Lime Tart with Mascarpone Mousse

I have hi-jacked my own website. This is supposed to be my travel blog and all I want to blog about is baking. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I haven't traveled anywhere but seriously...I'm sure I can pull a story out from one of my previous trips. Oh well. tough cookies...or tarts in this case.

Goat Cheese Mousse tart with mulberry and currants

I took another class from Gourmandise Desserts. A pies & tarts class. I love Clemence. She is just the greatest and most generous teacher I've ever had the pleasure of taking a class from. She learned all her mad skills from her family's auberge just outside of Apt, Provence. I highly recommend looking into taking one of her classes if you're interested in baking! In order to make sure that I could actually apply what I learned in class, I decided to bake up 3 different tarts for a friend's kids' birthday.

lilikoi Mousse tart with figs and mulberry

It's amazing how much you can fudge a basic recipe to suit your needs just by changing an ingredient here and there. Changed a cheese here, fruit filling there...and voila! Key Lime, Goat Cheese, and Lilikoi tarts!

My fancy pie weights that I used.

Best Pate Sablee EVER!!!

I could go on and on raving about how this is the best tasting crust I've ever had and writing out the recipe but why bother when I didn't change or add a thing on Tartelette's recipe? and let's face it, hers LOOKS better, too!!

The one change I did make is with the mousse - Lilikoi Mousse & Key Lime Mousse.

Lilikoi/Key Lime Mousse:

400 ml Heavy Cream

8 oz mascarpone

1/4 cup Lilikoi [passion fruit] pulp or the juice from key limes [yes, i squeezed each one of those little buggers!!]

1/8 cup sugar [or to taste]

combine the mascarpone with the sugar until dissolved. add the fruit juice/pulp and combine.

whip the heavy cream. add whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture gently folding it in.

fill the tarts with the mousse, add the fruits on top - please don't be cheap like me - add LOTS of fruits on the tart!!

**i got a text message from my BFF, Sao, at midnight saying she loved the tarts!! my biggest (and only) fan!**

Shopping around the World...

I wish I could say that shopping is a dirty little secret of mine but unfortunately, everyone knows and when everyone knows, it ceases to be a secret. I wish I could say definitively that my Senseless Desire to Acquire Syndrome (aka SDAS) was caused by one specific thing but it's probably actually several reasons: 1.) the thrill off the hunt, 2.) new hobbies that must be pursued to the fullest degree, 3.) I go from couch potato to fitness queen and back again, thus needing a wide range of clothes sizes/options, 4.) I'm trying to help the economy regain its footing singlehandedly, and 5.) i'm bored.

So apart from scouring the world of information for places to eat and things to do, I also make it my mission to figure out what I can buy in said parts of the world. Here are just a few of my favorite places to shop!

FRANCE

Marius Fabre (Soap Factory)
148 av Paul Bourret
13300 Salon de Provence, France

00 33 (0)4 90 53 82 75
M - F 9:30 - 11:30am; 1:45 to 5:00pm (4pm on Fridays)

E.DEHILLERIN (cookware)
18 et 20, rue Coquillière
51, rue Jean- Jacques Rousseau - 75001
PARIS
Phone: +33 1 42 36 53 13 - Fax: +33 1 42 36 54 80
Email: info@e-dehillerin.fr
Open on mondays from 9 to 12.30 and from 14 to 18 and on tuesdays to saturdays from 9 to 18. Closed on sundays and off-days

ITALY

Prada Outlet (Space)
Strada Statale 69
Localita Levanella, Montevarchi (Arezzo)
39.055.91901



Diffusione Tessile (Max Mara)
Via Goleto 13/B
Boretto (Reggio Emilia)Emilia Romagna
39.0522.964415

The Mall (various labels)
Via Europa 8Leccio/
Reggello (Florence)
39.055.865775




Il Salvagente
via fratelli bronzetti 16
Milan, Italy
02.76.11.03.28
Mon: 3 - 7pm
Tues - Sat: 10am - 7pm


JAPAN:
Depachika (basement of department stores)

Uniqlo

100 Yen Shop


NEW YORK:

Century 21 Department Store
22 Cortlandt Street
New York, NY
212.227.9092
M - W: 7:45am - 9pm
Th - Fr: 7:45am - 9:30pm
Sat: 10am - 9pm
Sun: 11am - 8:00pm

Clothingline
Sample Sales
261 W 36th Street 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10079

Shop Gotham
take the garment center tour! great look into sample sale/showroom shopping!


Uniqlo
546 Broadway
New York, NY
212.221.9037


I will continue to update this list as additional places come to mind (or if I find new places, of course!)

Nutter Butter Cookies

Once upon a long time ago, I spent a lot of time hanging out at my friend, Miles' house. His mom used to [and still does] keep a tupperware filled with cookies on the kitchen counter. Each week, the cookie selection would change. I was there so often, I would frequently help myself to some of those cookies.

One afternoon, I swung by the house and waited for Miles in the kitchen. As I plopped myself down in front of the kitchen counter, I spotted my favorite cookie in the tupperware - a Nutter Butter. There was only one left and it was surrounded by a mound of other cookies I didn't care for. I grabbed the container and popped the lid open. Exactly one second after I popped the lid, I heard a THUD on the ground, followed by pounding feet as they ran towards the kitchen. My eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights as I realized that Miles was charging straight towards me and my cookie. My survival instinct kicked in and I lunged across the barstools to keep my prize away from him. As he reached over to try to pry the Nutter Butter out of my death grip, I realized I only had one last opportunity to save my cookie...so I licked it.

I turned back to him and said, "Here. Here's your stupid cookie."

Outraged, he screamed, "You licked the LAST Nutter Butter! I don't want your cooties!"

So with a big Cheshire cat grin on my face, I said, "Fine" and took a big @$$ bite out of it.

To this day, he's still bitter about the fact that I ate the very last Nutter Butter. To this day, I still feel extremely victorious over my win.

Miles - in honor of our friendship of more than 20 years [and frank shock and amazement that we're actually still friends], this cookie is for YOU...enjoy!

Nutter Butter Cookies

[Bouchon Bakery's Nutter Butter Cookies without the oats & nuts]

COOKIE DOUGH

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 tsp baking soda

1 lb unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 - 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

FILLING

1/4 lb unsalted butter

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 - 2/3 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cookie dough:

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, set aside. Using a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and peanut butter. Add sugars and beat at medium speed for 4 minutes, scraping down bowl.

At low speeds, add eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture and beat at low speeds until well mixed, frequently scraping down bowl. Drop 2 inch balls on parchment lined baking sheets approximately 3" apart. Bake until cookies have spread and turned a very light golden brown, approximately 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool and firm up, approximately 5 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool completely before filling.

Filling:

Using an electric mixer, combine peanut butter, butter, & confectioners sugar until very smooth.

I melted down some chocolate and dipped my cookies in. Yum.

Macarons - 3, Jenny - 0

My latest quest to feed my Type A [but inherently lazy] personality is to figure out how the heck to make a macaron. I hate paying $2.00 +/- for each cookie so I figured, I'm a smart girl...I can LEARN how to make it. I used David Lebovitz's recipe for the French Chocolate Macarons with instructions from My Tartelette in Desserts Magazine. The only thing I added was infusing the powdered sugar with lavendar. For the filling, I used a pomegranate curd recipe that I found on LisaMichelle's website.

Sadly, as you can see from the photo above, my first batch came out miserable - cracked cookie, no "foot" [tasted great - looked sad]. Luckily, my co-workers were all Macaron virgins and I was able to dump that batch on them [as I do most of my failed projects]! That miserable single attempt at Macarons started me on my quest to figure out how to make a macaron. [In spite of someone's facebook comment to me, "why make it when you can buy it??" clearly he doesn't realize the depth of my stubborness, cheapness...or unwillingness to be beaten by a baked good]

After questioning some co-workers who are enrolled in various pastry classes throughout the city, I decided to try out Gourmandise Desserts class. Gourmandise Desserts operates out of two locations - one in Venice and another in Culver City at Surfas. The class I took was based in Venice at the St Josephs's Center, which operates a non profit culinary training program during the day. I arrived 20 minutes early to find our instructor, Clemence, in a flurry of activity prepping for the class. Clemence is not a classically trained pastry chef but is just a fount of information. My ultimate goal is to understand the CHEMISTRY behind baking and that woman has that knowledge in her head and is more than willing to share her knowledge not only in her classes but her "hotline" as well! She welcomes us to call her with any questions we may have! Her warm hospitality drew me in and set the tone for the class.

Keeping in mind that I had read the detailed instructions by Helen of my tartelette, who said that people were shocked to find how aggressive she was with mixing her batch, I still couldn't picture how aggressive and how much it needed to be broken down. I was shocked when I saw Clemence go to town on it. "but...but...what if you overmix it?" I asked in hushed tones. She took my stupid comment with all seriousness and said, "just watch. you'll learn and know by the end of tonight how much to mix and how to tell when it's done."

Indeed we each had an opportunity to process, whip, beat, combine, and pipe the little bites of deliciousness. "Who here feels like they can go home and make this on their own??" she asked, scanning the class with her bright blue eyes. i slowly raised my hand half way up...then set it back down. Hey, i may FEEL like i can do it but let's keep in mind that I also feel like i can finish a triathlon in a month. clearly sock smoking runs rampant in my life.

There's no better way to test myself on my macarons baking ability than to just do it....

...

...

...

Ok. back. Just did TWO batches and...well, disaster. Last time I checked, macarons should not spread...all. over. the. place. stay tuned. I gave up tonight but i have not given up the battle. GRRRRR.

Birthday Cake for Boss...

I don't know what has come over me. I think it's reading all these darn beautiful food blogs but I'm like a woman possessed! I have to, have to, have to...BAKE. My boss, Michael, had his birthday on Friday and I offered to bake his birthday cake. I asked him what he didn't like, what he liked...and then I picked something that I liked better. Whaaaat?? I have to at least make him think that he's part of the decision making process. Job security.

He did mention that he liked "fruity" cakes. Having worked at a bakery for many years, I automatically thought of the fresh fruit filled cakes with custard. Knowing Michael, however, I realized that he's just not the fresh fruit kinda guy. He much prefers the preserves/jammy sweetness to fresh fruit which may or may not be sweet.

I cooked up a batch of Raspberry jam mostly because I just like the deep red color and partly because my boss had specified that he liked raspberries. I had two requests for chocolate cake - one from my boss and the other from my boss' boss (Jack). I decided to go with a white cake instead. (For those who are wondering - yes, this is EXACTLY what it's like to have me as an employee...)

I can't seem to get past the 1-2-3-4 cake from the back of the Swan's Down box. The raspberry recipe was actually really easy that I found on epicurious and adjusted for taste by adding meyer lemon zest and less sugar. And the Swiss Buttercream frosting recipe from Smitten Kitchen is the BEST frosting recipe I've ever had the pleasure of using. It's not overpoweringly sweet at all and goes onto cakes like a dream. I don't know if I'll ever use another frosting again.

I'm happy to report that no one died from food poisoning from my attempts at baking. The biggest disaster of the day was the fact that I dropped the 1/2 eaten piece of cake on my super cute shoes. SIGH. I was forced to cut myself another piece and start over again.